My first brewing (tomorrow) . Look over process/ingredients.

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bmarley5780

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Heya everyone. Joe here from NC.

Went to the local brewing shop this past weekend and got the True Brew starting kit with the glass carboy.
I asked about brewing a Hefeweiser first using a 320 yeast...He ended up not having the 320 or the 300..

So he put this together for me:

Safbrew WB-06 - Dry wheat yeast
(2) bags of Crosby & baker Cascade hop pellets
(2) cans Thomas Coopers Malt Extract -Wheat - 1.1 liter
Bag of Irish Moss (helps clear the beer) ?

Anyone have any comments on the above? Taste ?

Also gave me some instructions that I would like to have looked over and, if needed, altered. Will be using a turkey cooker for the process...
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Bring 2 gallons of water to boil

- Pour 2 cans of malt in.

- Stir till dissolved and bring back to boil

- Add one bag of hops

- Boil 45 mins.
- The last 15 min add 1 tsp. Irish Moss

-REMOVE FROM HEAT-

- Add 2nd bag of hops, stir, let rest for 5 min.

- Pour through strainer into bucket

- Add 4 gallons cold water, stir vigorously.

-When temp is 78°f add yeast don't stir.

Let this sit 5 days at room temp, before going into the carboy for 2 more weeks.

-done-
------------------------------------------------------------

Any comments on the above is very welcome! Also bought some of that iodine concentrate.
I intend to put together a keg system for the brew, and force carbonate. Still have to learn alot!
-Thanks

Joe
 
Joe,

Sounds fairly good. I will modify the following:

" - Pour 2 cans of malt in." I'd add one can of at that point, and add the other can here: " - The last 15 min add 1 tsp. Irish Moss". That'll help keep the color light.

" - Add 4 gallons cold water, stir vigorously." I'd change that to read "- Add cold water to the bucket to make 5 gallons; stir vigorously." If you boil off more or less than 1 gallon, your final batch size will be compromised. If you just pour in your boiled wort and top it off to five gallons with cold water, you'll have the exact recipe amount.

Ignore the last instruction: "Let this sit 5 days at room temp, before going into the carboy for 2 more weeks." For one thing, you should have gotten a hydrometer with your equipment kit. That's the instrument you use to tell when your ferment is finished, not a calendar. For another, Hefeweizen, like all low-alcohol wheat beers, doesn't require racking/transfer to another vessel. You can rack it to your bottling bucket and package it, or keg it straight from the primary.

The yeast substitution means you probably won't get the classic banana and clove flavors of Bavarian Hefeweizen. But you will have, at the end of the process, a fabulously fresh, flavorful fluid fermented by you. And nothing about that can possibly suck. :D

Cheers!

Bob
 
Bob-

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes I do have a hydrometer. What Gravity should I be shooting for? Or is that not relavent? Ah, dont lots of reading, but it seems I need more.
 
Your gravity is going to be your gravity. Unless you reduce or increase the amount of malt extract, there's not much you can do to impact that. Just mix very, very well in the fermenter; not only will this homogenize the wort (for gravity sampling), it'll also aerate the wort for the yeasties. Take an Original Gravity (OG) reading and record it.

Your FG is dependent on fermentation. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

Cheers,

Bob
 
i might be mistaken, but shouldn't he get hist wort to 70 degrees in a ice bath in the brewpot, before he starts to mix with water? or is his basic method going to work? seems to me it would take to long to get to temp (within 1/2 hour or so )

also taking an OG (starting gravity) before the yeast, and then in 1.5-2 weeks later, what will give you your ABV%... i made that mistake on my first brew..so i have a English Brown with Unkown ABV%!


Joel
 
When you pour in your malt take the pot off the burner so it doesn't get scorched. Also make sure you stir it very well while boiling also, to avoid scorching.

Another thing is you might want to put the hops in a hop bag, or you can get a paint strainer bag at the hardware store which will work even better. This keeps most of the hops from falling apart in your wort so when you transfer it into the primary you shouldn't have as much trub.
 
You also want to make sure to run the malt cans under warm water before opening them, makes getting the extract out much easier.
 
Very good tips, all! Joe, are you taking notes? ;)

Joel, the basic method will work. Your cooling method works better.

DutchK9 is absolutely right about taking the kettle off the heat before stirring in the extract. Scorching sucks. Tastes bad.

Tenchiro also passes on information so second-nature to me that I completely forgot to mention it. Good on yer!

Bob
 
Would a used grain bag work alright for holding boiling hops also? Rather than straining it.

Mike
 
i might be mistaken, but shouldn't he get hist wort to 70 degrees in a ice bath in the brewpot, before he starts to mix with water? or is his basic method going to work? seems to me it would take to long to get to temp (within 1/2 hour or so )

also taking an OG (starting gravity) before the yeast, and then in 1.5-2 weeks later, what will give you your ABV%... i made that mistake on my first brew..so i have a English Brown with Unkown ABV%!


Joel

If he pitches at 78 degrees it will just get the yeast going a little faster. As long as it doesn't stay at 78 longer than a day or so no off flavors should result from the higher pitching temp.
 
Question. How many ounces is in each hops bag? If this is a hefe and those are 2 oz bags, that seems like a lot of hops to me.
 
Well, last night I brewed my first....

I felt pretty good about everything. Sanitation process probably needs to be more fluid. As of this morning, there is about 1/2 inch of stuff at the top of the carboy and about a inch at the bottom. The middle looks crazy in motion! Stuff goin every which way! Will post pics soon.

I put some photos in my gallery.
 
REALLY!!!

I won't be able to get to it till 4-30 pm today! Think it will turn bad?

I am also concerned about the ambient temp. The fermentation sticker them. noted it was 78°. To high?
 
REALLY!!!

I won't be able to get to it till 4-30 pm today! Think it will turn bad?

I am also concerned about the ambient temp. The fermentation sticker them. noted it was 78°. To high?

No.
Yes.

Ah, just kidding! The best thing to do when you get home is to put it in a tub with a towel over the carboy, and then put some water in the tub to "wick" it up to cool the carboy. You want the sticker thermometer in the 68 degree range, so you want to bring that temp down.

You want to cover the carboy, because sunlight (and some UV sources) causes hops to skunk (think Grolsch or Corona or St. Pauli Girl). Unless it's in a sunny place, it'll be ok until you get home!
 
You want to cover the carboy, because sunlight (and some UV sources) causes hops to skunk (think Grolsch or Corona or St. Pauli Girl). Unless it's in a sunny place, it'll be ok until you get home!

Thank you Yooper, I should have elborated.
 
Got home yesterday put the carboy in a big ol tupperware will some water, wrapped 2 towels around it and put it in a darker/ cooler room then privious...

The temp was holdin steady at 73. So I put (8) bottled waters in the freezer. Took out two bottles not quite fully frozen before bed. Temp went down to 69.

This morning temp was 71. Before leaving for work put 4 bottles in...Temp was 64 when I left....

Fermentation still going good tho. Still pretty active in there.

-Joe
 
****-

I've been reading that one is supposed to put vodka in the airlock...I didn't! It's been 3 days since brewing. Should I stop by the ABC before goin home?
 
I wouldn't sweat it too much. Vodka, sanitiser, sanitised water - all are okay. Even if you didn't add anything other than regular ol' water, unless something weird happened and the water got sucked back into the carboy, you haven't got much to worry about.

Write it down on the "Things To Remember Next Time" list. You are keeping one of those, right? ;)

Bob
 
Well, Today is one week . I haven't messes with it much besides changing frozzen water bottels...ya and thats about it....

The krausen(sp) is about gone ? I will most likely be racking directly to a corny this weekend. But not tapped till later.
 
I have my kegs cleaned and sanitized.

The few things I don’t have as of yet are the connectors for the “IN” and “OUT” along with a full Co2 tank…. Should I wait till I get these to rack into the keg?
The wife is wanting to get the fermentation swimming pool outta the kitchen. Could I just put the carboy in the frig?

Today will be 2 wks since brewday.
 
I'd also advise waiting. Berserker is quite right, though I disagree when to purge the keg. You should always purge the vessel with CO2 before moving your beer into it. That way, the swirling movement of the beer won't dissolve air/O2 into the beer, because there's no air in the vessel to dissolve!

That said, you could "keg condition" your beer by racking the beer into the keg along with priming sugar. You'll have to use less sugar, of course. Search for an online carbonation calculator. I just use ~3oz and leave it at that! Good ol' Charlie P used to advise 1/3 cup corn sugar per five gallons. That works. The software suite I use - ProMash - has a keg-conditioning priming calculator built in. Makes it veeeery easy. ;)

Cheers,
 
What do you guys say about just putting the carboy in the frig untill I get the rest of my stuff?
 
If you keep up with the hobby, here is a cheap contraption which regulates the fermentation temp really well.

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

i built one and it holds at a steady 68 for almost 2 days before i have to change out the ice bottle.......p.s. empty plastic vodka bottles work waaaaay better than the milk jug approach......ive had two milk jugs spring leaks and soak the carpet down but none with the vodka bottles
 
alrighty-

I got my Co2 and all that mess today! I had put my carboy in the frig (42 deg) since Tuesday and the Hefe is 2w 3days old. Would it be possible to force carb it to enjoy tonight?
 
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